MOSCOW, 18 March (Sputnik) — This Sunday, almost 111 million Russian citizens vote for the country's next president, while the results of the vote will be announced tomorrow.

Russian nationals are electing the country's head of state among eight contenders: Sergei Baburin from the All-People's Union party; Communist Party candidate Pavel Grudinin; incumbent Russian President Vladimir Putin; Civil Initiative party candidate Ksenia Sobchak; Communists of Russia party chairman Maxim Suraykin; Presidential Commissioner for Entrepreneurs' Rights Boris Titov; co-founder of the Yabloko party Grigory Yavlinsky, and head of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia Vladimir Zhirinovsky.

"People are actively going to the polls. [As of 12:00 p.m. Moscow time (09:00 GMT)], the voter turnout in the Ural Federal District, the Siberian Federal District and the Far Eastern Federal District was 28 percent higher compared to 2012," CEC Deputy Chairman Nikolay Bulaev said.

The voter turnout in Moscow stood at 40.06 percent as of 03:00 p.m. local time (12:00 GMT) compared to 34.04 percent in 2012.

The voter turnout for the Russian presidential election stood at 51.9 percent as of 05:00 p.m. Moscow time (14:00 GMT), according to the data provided by the Russian Central Election Commission (CEC).

"Everything went well, democratically, in accordance with the Russian laws ... I cannot say that everything went 100 percent as we wanted, because, unfortunately, there were acts of provocations," Russian ambassador to US Anatoly Antonov said.

Antonov explained that one of the buildings where the voting was to take place was poured with some filth. Besides, a number of cases were recorded when the people who were allowed to use their buildings for voting received threats and subsequently rejected this idea.

"Representatives of 20 countries are observing the course of voting in Crimea - including those from the United States, Ukraine, Austria, the United Kingdom, Latvia, Italy, Venezuela and Switzerland," Malyshev said.

He added that a total of 43 international observers were monitoring the election in Crimea.

Malyshev noted that the Crimean Tatars were also actively participating in the election despite calls for a boycott of the vote issued by banned extremist organizations.

"Those Crimean Tatars, who are feeling residents of Crimea, are really coming and taking part in the voting," the official said.

According to Malyshev, the voter turnout in Crimea amounted to 53.48 percent as of 03:00 p.m. (12:00 GMT).